Great-grand-dad Cooper

What I found out or was told: Great-granddad Cooper was an Irish blacksmith who worked for the Yankee's during the civil war shooing their horses. One day they came upon an Native American Cree camp. One lady was working very hard and was not treated well. So Cooper took her back to Dayton, where she had eight children. It was always cozy in their home with the fire on for the blacksmithing. The first one to be born was our grandmother to be. At least that is what I could coble together or was hinted at by our mother. There must have been a Cooper too? But I wouldn't know how he would fit in... I think you know more about the family tree than I ever did. Our mother was full of secrets... She must have expected something else when she married our father John. She probably dreamed of an American kitchen and a washing machine or a real fridge and not a zinc tub with a block of ice. They lived with ten people then in a clap house, like the put on the reservations in Arizona: Too cold in winter, too hot in summer... They lived in there with ten people, plus me as a baby. When a nephew didn't do what she wanted she slapped him in the face. Aunt Louise remembers the incident clearly. It was probably that what made them leave. Dad had a good job with the railroad in Dayton. Louise never understood why he gave that up to leave Dayton. I seem to remember they went East, and ended up in Texas where fate did its work, for you as well as for me and our mother. I think our father has been a good father to Mark. He and my late husband Tony Mafia used to talk on the phone a lot. John always came across as caring, but after he and our mother split up, he too went through a rough spot for a while, till he found his way back to Dayton.  He remarried after a while and along came Mark. He writes, he has done a lot of linguistics at the university but except for his writing he didn't do much with his linguistics. No, that isn't true: he once gave me a language he had developed and which would come in handy in meeting aliens ; ).

PS: There should be a Gallagher somewhere. So maybe I am confusing the Cooper branch and the Gallaghers

My mother's books

My mother’s books

After my mother passed away, my stepfather said: you can take the English books away. I took them and have in the mean time read most of them. Some are by good authors like William Burroughs, Tennessee Williams, Irwin Shaw, James Michener, Pearl Buck, Truman Capote, Larry Mac Murthy and also Louisville Saturday by Margaret Long: soldiers and lonely women, love, ecstasy and heartbreak.

The rest: trash pure and unadulterated, rather sexualized trash. But then the other day I spotted a French book by Simone de Beauvoir. I could have that one too. My mother had had a good education, has been in a French speaking boarding school, so the language didn’t surprize me. The title: La femme rompue (The torn woman). It was the youngest book among the lot. I am reading it: it is a dark and troubled book, written very intelligent. The male/female relationships are dark and troubled dissecting also mothers and daughters. (In this case posthumously)

The book portrays the loneliness of relationships that once were vibrant and fulfilling, but leaves the main characters empty handed, empty hearted. The little noises of others being unpalatable and the loneliness unbearable. The main female character at the end can’t write as well as she could. There is lot of silence in the book, uncomfortable silence that is. Every relationship turns into a disappointment and thus loneliness settles deep in the soul. Silence in the conversations, which are not really an exchange, which leave one empty broken. I wonder how broken her spirit was, to the point of dementia. To the point of no return: terminal dementia.

High expectations of oneself do not come true in the book which kind of breaks, brings someone down. Why did she buy and read that book? She must have expected more from life, but with my stepfather she choose the safe road for her, although not for me. It is an intelligent book – what one would expect from Simone De Beauvoir. In nature once in while there is solace to be found and solitude. Yet in her life there is also too much solitude. My mother was a good-looking woman. And she could hold her drink. Men were drawn to her. She met Louis at the Century hotel where she worked as a telephone operator and he as an electrician.

Liefde in België/ Love in Belgium/ Liebe in Belgiën

Each of the poets sent in three poems. Each poem was then translated into German by German poet Fred Schywek. Fred has translated many Dutch-writing poets into German. Some poems speak about loss, others about lust. Some write short poems, followed by a long one. Anything goes, since all the participants are real poets. Of course life goes on while doing all this. One is moving house. Another has a bad cold or a deadline for something else. But the poems got written. On Sunday night we will read all the poems to each other. Of course with a drink and a bite...
This years Buchmesse in Frankfurt has as special guests The Netherlands and Flanders from 19. - 23. October 2016. It is within this framework that the book will appear beginning of October  when the Buchmesse is on.  
The Cover picture is by Tony Mafia
Participants: Joke van Leeuwen * Annmarie Sauer * Rose Vandewalle * Annie Reniers *Maud Vanhauwaert * Lies van Gasse * Annemarie Estor 
 

Family matters - Familymatters

The first time I met my father and my brother was after a year of interpreting for the meetings of ESSO, having saved each payment for the trip. We had flown in to Washington and the trip to Dayton was silent and long, driving through cornfields mile after mile to get to Dayton. It could have been a wild goose chase not having found a phone number from Belgium for my father. After we settled down in the local Holiday Inn I picked up the phone book. There were a bunch of Sauers... I knew my father was John A. or R. Sauer and found the number. So I called and a young male voice answers the phone. I said: My name is Annmarie Sauer, I am looking for a relative of mine. He, Mark said I pass you my father. A nice voice comes on the phone. I repeat what I just told Mark and the male voice at the other end answers: Yes, you are my daughter. I hadn't thought further than that. So I said I would like to meet you. So he gives me instruction to come to his work, He was a blue collar worker in a print factory. Jim and I and Maya showed up and had a nice meeting. He apologized for my English (which must have sounded too European or British) saying: She lost her accent... The young man, Mark had come too, and I thought: Oh, my little brother is Gay. I cherish that meeting. Years later when I was in Chloride, he called me and came out to me. So sweet... . We corresponded a while but now it is time to be closer again, seen there is another brother... I guess one way or the other we should all meet. Because no longer am I an only child, who has an only child... Although seen I didn't know anything about the child Tom, also my brother, I felt like an only child. So I am the oldest of the three of us.

Inspector Schimanski is no more...

Götz George (23 July 1938 - 19 June 2016) son of the actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. He was the german actor chosen to perform the role of the Duisburg detective Horst Schimanski for the TV crime series Tatort. He has performed many other characters as well... This detective was very fysical, smart, sometimes kind to the perpetrators, knowing how hard their life is. He starred in plays plays and his debut was in 1950 in a play by . He perfected is acting between 1958 and 1963. He personified Martin Luther, was the lead in Büchner's Danton's Death, which he considered to be his best role. William Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands. He also co-staged-managed .Gogol's The Government Inspector


He received the crucial part of his acting education between 1958 and 1963. Following his mother's advice he occasionally played at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen under the direction of Heinz Hilpert. After Hilpert's death, George would never join a fixed theater company again. Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer. His most important stage achievement, in his own opinion, was the lead role in  during the Salzburg Festival in 1981. In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and Helmut Stauss, stage-managed. Performing in Anton Chekhov's Platonov, George went on his hitherto last theater tour. He also was in some films among other one with Romy Schneider. 

He has given me many great Sunday evening delights, seeing his rough and tumble character, with a soft side doing what he did. In Ruhrort there is a Schimanski Gasse. Next time I am there I will lay down a flower for him.

Brexit

I feel strangely lonely after the British people voted to leave the European Union. I listened to the radio all night. It has always been the UKIP and thus Nigel Farage, a demagogue who never liked the union and had a seat in the European Parliament together with the extreme right, with a racist and nationalist ideology.
I started to work for the European Parliament as a very young freelance interpreter and after passing the competition I became a staff member. I was really happy with the first enlargement when Britain joined the original six countries the so called BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg,) Germany, Italy and France was the first enlargement and to me it just felt right. Now there were till yesterday 28 countries. 27 thus of today.
A lot of energy will be siphoned off to regulate how this exit will be organized. Time that could be better used for the other major subjects like climate change, the refugees and how to deal humanely and compassionately with them. It is a bitter situation which can be dealt with better with the European Union. Maybe this represents also an opportunity to strengthen the European Union. However there are similar Eurosceptic parties in the different member states. Article 50 should be applied since this article states how to disentangle one nation from the Union.
The British pound is floundering... The financial markets are in turmoil. And Nigel Farage is still stirring the pot hoping that the Dutch and other countries will also organize a vote to leave. However with all it's difficulties the European Union still is a great project. The expat community from Britain is not feeling very good right now. An interesting fact: The young people between 18 and 25 voted to stay it and London too is not like the rest of the still United Kingdom.

Poetry reading in the Ruhrort Artgallery

 Fred Schywek is a good organizer, he has taste in music and is an interesting poet. He also loves music and this is how he works with musicians. These musicians are great. I always feel carried by their music. They seem to feel the mood of each of my poems. Fred also read his Hollywood poetry. In each of the images accompanying the poems one sees the grime and dirt of Hollywood. He doesn't prettify reality. But with a sensitive touch clarifies the facts of life on Hollywood Boulevard. Meat for sale, sleeping rough, begging for food, impersonating a star for a quarter or a dime...

Scientology and it's consequences and yes some of the boardwalk stars... Oh yes I read poetry by Sherman Alexie and by Robert Hershon translated for the occasion in German. The crowd enjoyed it all. Listened attentively and commented at the end. Another great reading. Claus the guitar on the left hand in the picture also read. I look forward to the next occasion. Fred had also made some slide shows and some shorts movies. A very varied menu to pick from. It was a great reading, right there on the river Rhine.